Planning my first season

I don't think it is too much racing, the better question is jumping up from Sprint to Intermediate (also know as Olympic distance). All of the distances are double in an Olympic, so the question becomes: how strong of a swimmer are you? 1500m is just shy of a mile. That is a big jump. Running and biking double the distance, in my opinion, is just about putting in the miles during training. If you are not a confident, comfortable swimmer, a lot can go wrong.

I think planning your first 13.1 at the end of your season is great. I usually do one at the beginning and the end of my season to assess my progress. I would say doing a Sprint in June and July, and then see how you are coming along and perhaps do an Olympic in August/September if your swim training has come along.

Good luck.

There is no rush and no right answer so I will share my experience.

My first summer, I stuck with Sprints as frankly the thought of training the distance to be able to string all 3 things together, was a huge mental hurdle for me. I also was training 2 swims/2bikes/2 runs which at the time seemed like I a ton of time.

I did 4 sprints the first year. The second season is when I targeted an Olympic distance. The lack of the unknown due to Jeff B's comments about double the distance was a concern when I first started out.

I am glad that I followed this approach as it gave me confidence in knowing what I can and can't do. This helped me focus my training effort for the 2nd year. I recall looking at a training plan that said I should ride for 2 hours at the peak and was like, no way.

I am a slow learner compared to some. Took me 4 seasons to tackle a HIM, 7 seasons to finally tackle a Full. There is plenty of time to jump up distances.

Good luck

I would take a different tack. What appeals to you?

I did a HIM as my first race cause I am long distance guy. To date I have never done anything shorter than a HIM. I am not saying that is for everyone, but for me it was what I felt motivated to do. I may do an Olympic near my house this summer since my focus in 2017 is more on hitting my standing marathon PR.

There are some people that only want to finish a full IM as their first (and maybe only). That is their dream. No interest in anything else.

I guess, dream about what gets your motivation going and put in the correct training to accomplish it.

In my first season I did two triathlon, then it kind of exploded from there. It really depends on a variety of factors including how hard you treat each race. If you treat every race as a training day you can do a lot more than if you raced at your limit. Here is a list of every race I have done, broken up by year. You can see I did a lot of races per year after year 1 of triathlon.

http://www.thomasgerlach.com/p/race-results.html

Don't think that's too much at all to get started. Enjoy it, have fun and welcome to the wonderful life that is triathlon!!!

Thanks for the reply! I am a little worried about the distance but I think if I start training now I should be able to do it....... It will be a challenge!

Thanks for the reply! I am aiming for your "rule #1" !

No sense putting in all that work to do just one race And as you said, they don't have to all be triathlons. Usually, I'll run 3-4 run races in the spring and another 4-5 in the fall, filling the summer months out with triathlons, usually two per month. After your first race, just play it by ear and have fun with it.

Thanks for the advice!!!!